Graphical user interface for creating content for a voice-user interface

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for creating a voice application, the method being implemented by a computer system and comprising generating a graphical user interface comprising a text-to-topic button; receiving first input identifying a location of a text file; receiving second input selecting the text-to-topic button; partitioning content associated with the text file into subjects in response to receiving the second input; and 
     storing information on the partitioning.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to voice applications. In particular it relatesto a method and system for building a voice application.

BACKGROUND

Voice applications are becoming increasingly popular and may be used indiverse applications such as computer support applications, interactivemenu systems, information processing systems, such airline timetable,etc.

In order to create a voice application, it is necessary to createcontent for the voice application and to develop code which uses thecontent to generate a voice-user interface.

In order to ensure that the voice-user interface is able to interactwith a caller and to engage in a question-and-answer style interactionthat the caller perceives as a conversation with a human, the contentand the code for the voice application has to be carefully thought outand should be able to cater for every possible eventuality during theinteraction.

Thus, situations where the caller provides no input, or provides ameaningless response to choices that were presented to the caller, etc.have to be dealt with appropriately.

On account of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the creation ofa robust voice application, i.e., one that is capable of interactingwith a user so that the user perceives the interaction as a conversationwith a human, is a complex task that requires the question-and-answerstyle interaction to be carefully scripted and the code to be rigorousenough to ensure that the voice application is capable of handling allpossible input from the caller.

Thus, a considerable amount of time and resources are required to createsuch robust voice applications. Consequently, a tool that facilitatesthe creation of robust voice applications is required, particularlywhere large bodies of knowledge are required to be made accessible tocallers through the voice application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 to 12, 14, 15, 17(a), 17(b), and 18 to 21 show various views ofthe graphical user interface in accordance with embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 13 shows a table which illustrates a shorthand representation ofthe grammar for a voice application in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention;

FIG. 16 shows a table which contains an example for which a system inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention will generate analert message; and

FIG. 22 shows a high-level block diagram of a computer that may be usedto implement the methods of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to oneskilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the invention.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments but not other embodiments.

Aspects of the present invention disclose a method and a system forgenerating a graphical user interface to facilitate the creation of avoice application. FIGS. 1 to 12, 14, 15, 17(a), 17(b), and 18 to 21 ofthe drawings provide various views of a graphical user interface inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, reference numeral 10 generallyindicates a view of the graphical user interface in which topicsassociated with content for a speech application is shown by topicgrouping. For example, the view 12 shows the topic groupings to includenavigation topics, subject topics, standard system topics, standardconcept memory topics and standard field topics. These topics arediscussed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/319,144entitled, “Automatic Generation of Voice Content for a Voice ResponseSystem” which is hereby incorporated by reference. In the view shown inFIG. 1 of the drawings, the actual topics within each topic groupingsare hidden. However, any of the icons 12 may be selected by a user,e.g., using a pointing device such as a mouse, to expand the view 12 toshow the actual topics within a topic group.

FIG. 2 of the drawings shows a view 14 of the graphical user interfacein which the icon 12 associated with the group “navigation topics” wasselected, resulting in the view 10 changing to the view 16, wherein, theactual topics within the navigation topic groupings are shown.

Referring now FIG. 3 of the drawings, reference numeral 16 shows a viewof the graphical user interface which is conveniently referred to as an“editor view.” As will be seen, the editor view 16 provides a commandarea 18 within which predefined tags used to structure content into aconversation are displayed. The predefined tags may be automaticallygenerated using a “text-to-topic” tool as will be described below. Inanother embodiment, the predefined tags may be selected by a user, forexample from a drop-down list. In yet another embodiment, the tags maybe generated by converting a visual flowchart (described in electronicform) with predefined shapes and connectors. The view 16 also providesthe actual text associated with each tag. For example, it will be seenthat on line 6, the text “First, a piece of advice. Don't bid if youdon't intend to pay. You might just have to.” is associated with a“task” tag. By selecting one of the icons 12, the child tags of a parenttag may be hidden from view. A discussion of child and parent tags iscontained in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/319,144.

The view 16 also provides a button 20 which when selected by a userprovides a subject listing 22 and a topic listing 24 (see FIG. 4 of thedrawings). Entries within the subject listing 22 and the topic listing24 may then be selected by a user. The system responds to the selectionby displaying details of the selected subject or topic.

In one embodiment, the graphical user interface allows the user to entera file name for a text file containing natural language text which theuser wishes to use as raw content for the voice application. Thus, inthis embodiment, the graphical user interface has a “text to topicbutton” which when selected causes the system to respond by analyzingthe content of the specified text file and to partition the content intosubjects and structure the content associated with each subject into apseudo-conversation with appropriate questions and answers. Informationon the partitioned subjects and the pseudo-conversation is then storedby the system. Tags defined in a markup language may be used tostructure the content into the pseudo-conversation. Techniques forpartitioning the content into subjects and generating the pseudoconversation are described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/319,144.

FIG. 5 of the drawings shows a view 26 of the graphical user interfaceimmediately after the text to topic button has been selected. As will beseen, the view 26 includes a pop-up window 28 wherein various parametersthat control the granularity of the partitioning of the raw content intosubjects may be controlled. For example the parameter labeled: “Subjectextraction assist” has associated with it a percentage scale 30 and asliding button 32 whose position along the percentage scale 30 may beadjusted by a user using a pointing device. The position of the slidingbutton 32 along the percentage scale 30, controls the granularity of thepartitioning of the subjects. If a detailed or comprehensive subjectpartitioning is required then the sliding button 32 is set closer to100% on the sliding scale 30. If, however, only a crude or roughpartitioning is required, then the sliding button 32 is positionedcloser to 0% on the sliding scale 30.

Referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawings, reference numeral 40 shows aview of the graphical user interface wherein a result of a text to topicpartitioning of the raw text by the system, in accordance with oneembodiment, is illustrated. The subjects generated by the system basedon the raw text document are illustrated by reference numeral 42. Aswill be seen, the sliding button 32 in FIG. 5 of the drawings is setrelatively close to 100% on the sliding scale 30. Thus, quite a fewsubjects were generated. FIG. 7 of the drawings shows a view 44 in whichthe sliding button 32 has been set to 40% on the sliding scale 30. Withthe subject extraction assist value set to 40%, only two subjects aregenerated as illustrated, reference numeral 48 in FIG. 8 of thedrawings, which shows a view 46 of the graphical user interface.

Referring again to FIG. 5 of the drawings, it will be seen that thepop-up window 28 has two additional sliding scales indicated byreference numerals 33 and 36, respectively. The sliding scale 33 has asliding button 34 which is for setting a parameter called “topicsimilarity” which is used to set the degree of similarity fordisambiguating the content (or topic) associated with each subjectgenerated by the system. The “topic similarity” parameter determines howto group topics that are similar for disambiguation. For example for thetopic “Windows setup,” the “topic similarity” parameter determines howmany subtopics such as “Windows 98”, “Windows 2000”, etc. the systemgenerates. The sliding scale 36 has a sliding button 38 which may bepositioned along the sliding scale 36 in order to control a parameterknown as “parent similarity” which is used to control the degree ofsimilarity between topic groups or clusters.

Referring again to FIGS. 6 and 8 of the drawings, it will be seen thatin addition to generating topics from a text document, selection of thetext to topic button also causes the system to tag components of thetext document based on semantic meaning. For example, an as can be seenin the view 46 of FIG. 8, all questions in the text document have beentagged with a “confirm” tag. A complete listing of all possible tagsthat may be used to tag the text is described in co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/319,144.

In one embodiment, the graphical user interface also provides a “guideme topic generation button” which when selected causes the system toanalyze a text document and to generate guide me topics which asks acaller a question to help locate a topic of interest to the caller,within a body of knowledge. This is particularly useful in cases wherethe body of knowledge is substantial. When the guide me generation topicbutton is selected, the system responds by building broad groupings oftopics and then generating a clarifying “ask” tag with appropriate“reply” tag and “jumps” to the individual topics.

In one embodiment, selection of the guide me topic generation buttondisplays a pop-up window similar to the window 28 which provides thesubject extraction, topic similarity, and parent similarity assistfeatures to control the granularity of the groupings of topics used tocreate the guide me navigation topics. FIG. 9 of the drawings shows aview 50 of the graphical user interface, wherein the guide me navigationtopics generated for a voice application are shown.

In contrast to guide me navigation topics, which provide questions whichassist the caller to identify a subject topic of interest, the systemalso provides a number of navigation prompts or questions which are usedto disambiguate topics that the system has identified as being relevantto input from the caller. For example, as is shown in the view 54 ofFIG. 10 of the drawings, if a user's questions relate to the topicbatteries, several topics will be relevant. In the example shown, thetopics “maximizing hand held battery life,” “average battery life,”“resolving rechargeable battery problems,” “preventing the life of datawhen changing batteries,” and “batteries and the SoundsGood MP3 player,”may all be relevant. Thus, a disambiguating question is necessary inorder isolate the topic that should be played. Accordingly, in oneembodiment, the graphical user interface provides a “subject to topic”button which when selected by the user causes the system toautomatically identify subject topics that are ambiguous and to generatedisambiguating questions for these subject topics. For example, in FIG.11 of the drawings reference numeral 56 illustrates a view of thegraphical user interface which shows the particular disambiguatingquestions that have been generated for the subject topics identified asbeing ambiguous in FIG. 10 of the drawings.

In order to handle for all possible responses to a prompt by a user theresponses have to be anticipated and a corresponding grammar built up.For example, in response to a question or prompt an answer that relatesto the topic “adjusting the memory for an Apple Macintosh computer” mayconceivably have the following variations:

adjusting Apple Mac memory;

adjusting Apple Macintosh memory;

adjusting Mac memory,

adjusting Macintosh memory;

adjusting an Apple Mac memory;

adjusting Apple Macintosh memory;

Mac memory; and

Macintosh memory.

Thus, a robust voice application would require a comprehensive grammarincluding all of the above possible variations.

In one embodiment, the graphical user interface of the present inventionprovides a view 58 shown in FIG. 12 of the drawings, in which thegrammar which the system is able to handle is displayed. In a particularembodiment, a shorthand visual notation is used to represent allpossible spoken options for a subject or reply in a compact manner. Thisvisual notation is illustrated in Table 60 which is shown in FIG. 13 ofthe drawings. As will be seen from Table 60, a word that is required tobe spoken is depicted in bold type whereas a word that is merelyoptional is depicted in italic type. Further, underlining is used todepict the “and” operation and in order to represent the “or” operationa comma is used together with parentheses.

In the example shown in Table 60, a “?” is referred to as the optionaloperator. This is used to designate a word that is optional, i.e., aword that may or may not be spoken by a caller. Further, parentheses areused to represent the “and” operator. Words within parentheses must bespoken together. Thus, in the example of Table 60, parentheses are usedto indicate that the words “stop” and “go” must be spoken together. Thesquare brackets denotes the “or” operator which indicates that any ofthe words within the square brackets may be spoken. In the example ofTable 60, the words “and go” or “now” must be spoken.

Referring to FIG. 14 of the drawings, a view 62 shown of the graphicaluser interface is shown wherein the compact or shorthand notationdescribed above with reference to Table 60 is used to display thegrammar associated with spoken options for a subject or reply.

In some embodiments, the graphical user interface may also include a“review grammar button” which when selected causes the system to reviewthe grammar for errors. FIG. 15 shows a view 64 of the graphical userwherein a result of a review operation by the system is shown. As willbe seen, the review grammar operation provides three types of messagesviz. an alert message, an examine message and an error message. Thealert message provides an indication that conflicts exist betweenavailable subjects and responses, for example, when the same spokenobject corresponds to two different topics, as is the case in theexample of Table 66 (see FIG. 16). Table 66 shows the grammar associatedwith two subjects, viz. “windows” and “desktop computer” which point,respectively to “STWindows” and “STDesktop.” As will be seen, the spokenoption “windows desktop computer” prompts to both STWindows andSTDesktop. Thus, in response to a selection of the review grammarbutton, the system would analyze the grammar and display an alertmessage to indicate or flag the conflict.

The examine message indicates cases where a subject cannot be spokenusing the defined spoken options. For instance, the grammar may includethe entries “Apple [mac macintosh]” with the spoken options: “apple Mac”and “apple macintosh.” If, however, the subject is “macintosh,” it willbe seen that this subject cannot be selected with the spoken options.

Error messages are used to indicate an illegal spoken option. Forexample, the grammar “six sixth(? the ? number six]” will indicate anerror message since the close parenthesis character is missing. Anotherexample where an error message would be generated includes the case inwhich all words in the grammar are flagged with a question mark ?character which indicates that they are optional. Since a user has toutter at least one word, the error message indicates to the user that atleast one of the words in the grammar should be made mandatory.

The graphical user interface also provides a “review prompt stylebutton” which when selected causes the system to analyze each prompt toensure that it is written in a manner to elicit a crisp or preciseresponse from a caller. Each prompt is also analyzed to make sure thatit is easily understood by a caller and does not contain words that areambiguous, or sentences that are too lengthy, etc. The details of howthe system reviews the prompts are described in co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/319,144.

FIG. 17( a) shows a view 68 of the graphical user interface wherein aresult of the prompt style review operation is shown. As will be seen,the system is recommending in pop-up window 70 that the word “usage” inthe prompt be replaced with the word “use” to make the prompt moreeasily understood by the caller. Another example of a result of theprompt style review operation is shown in FIG. 17( b) of the drawings,wherein it will be seen that the system is prompting the user to replacethe word “perform” in the prompt with the word “due” or some othercommanding word construction.

Once all prompts have been written, it is necessary to record audio sothat the system can playback the prompts to a caller. Accordingly, thegraphical user interface provides a “record audio button” which may beselected to cause the system to go into an audio receive mode whereinthe system records audio from an audio source such as an externalmicrophone. After recording, the system automatically saves the recordedaudio and then builds an internal association between the recorded audioand its associated prompt. FIG. 18 of the drawings shows a view 72 ofthe graphical user interface wherein a record audio pop-up window 74 isdisplayed. The pop-up window 74 provides functionality to allow a userto record audio for a particular prompt. In one embodiment of thegraphical user interface, a visual indication is provided to indicateprompts for which no audio has been recorded. In one embodiment, thevisual indication may take the form of a different color font used torepresent prompts for which no audio has been recorded. In anotherembodiment, if a change is made to a prompt for which an audio messagehas already been recorded, then the system automatically changes thevisual indicator associated with the prompt to indicate that the audiois “dirty” in the sense that it has to be re-recorded to conform to thechanged prompt.

In one embodiment, the graphical user interface further comprises a“verify project” button which when selected causes the system to reviewthe entire project for errors. For example, FIG. 19 shows a view 76 ofthe graphical user interface wherein a result of a review of the projectby the system in response to selection of the verify project button isdisplayed.

The graphical user interface of the present invention may, in someembodiments, provide a view 78, shown in FIG. 20 of the drawings,wherein the actual markup language code associated with the voiceapplication is displayed. In one example, the code may be SXML code asdescribed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/319,144.

In one embodiment, the graphical user interface provides an editor toallow a user to enter code to define a function that is called fromwithin the markup language code. For example, in one embodiment, thegraphical user interface provides a Java Script editor which is shown inthe view 80 shown in FIG. 21 of the drawings. The editor allows the userto enter Java Script directly into the system which then links the JavaScript to a function call in the markup language code.

Referring now to FIG. 22 of the drawings, reference numeral 100generally indicates an example of a processing system that may representa general purpose computer that may be used to implement the systemdescribed above and to perform the various techniques described above.

Processing system 100 typically includes at least one processor 102coupled to a memory 104. Processor 102 may represent one or moreprocessors (e.g. microprocessors), and memory 104 may represent randomaccess memory (RAM) devices comprising a main storage of system 100, aswell as any supplemental levels of memory e.g., cache memories,non-volatile or back-up memories (e.g. programmable or flash memories),read-only memories, etc. In addition, memory 104 may be considered toinclude memory storage physically located elsewhere in system 100, e.g.any cache memory in a processor 102, as well as any storage capacityused as a virtual memory, e.g., as stored on a mass storage device 110or on another computer coupled to system 100 via network 112.

Processing system 100 also typically receives a number of inputs andoutputs for communicating information externally. For interface with auser or operator, system 100 typically includes one or more user inputdevices 106 (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, etc.) and a display 108 (e.g., aCRT monitor, a LCD panel). However, with some implementations of system100, such as in a server, direct local user input and output may not berequired, such that user input devices 106 and display 108 may beomitted.

For additional storage, system 100 may also include one or more massstorage devices 110, e.g., a floppy or other removable disk drive, ahard disk drive, a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD), an optical drive(e.g. a CD drive, a DVD drive, etc.) and/or a tape drive, among others.Furthermore, hardware 100 may include an interface with one or morenetworks 112 (e.g., a land, a WAN, a wireless network, and/or theInternet among others) to permit the communication of information withother computers coupled to the networks. It should be appreciated thatsystem 100 typically includes suitable analog and/or digital interfacesbetween processor 102 and each of the components 104, 106, 108 and 112as is well known in the art.

Processing system 100 operates under the control of an operating system114, and executes various computer software applications, components,programs, objects, modules, etc. (e.g. a program or module whichperforms operations as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 of the drawings).Moreover, various applications, components, programs, objects, etc. mayalso execute on one or more processors in another computer coupled tosystem 100 via a network 112, e.g. in a distributed computingenvironment, whereby the processing required to implement the functionsof a computer program may be allocated to multiple computers over anetwork.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of theinvention, may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs”. The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when readand executed by one or more processors in a computer, cause the computerto perform these steps necessary to execute steps or elements involvingthe various aspects of the invention. Moreover, while the invention hasbeen described in the context of fully functioning computers andcomputer systems, those skilled in the art will appreciate that thevarious embodiments of the invention are capable of being distributed asa program product in a variety of form, and that the invention appliesequally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media usedto actually off the distribution. Examples of signal bearing mediainclude but are not limited to recordable type media such as volatileand non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, harddisk drives, optical disks (e.g. CD ROMS, DVDs, etc.), among others, andtransmission type media such as digital and analog communication links.

Although the present invention has been described with reference tospecific exemplary embodiments, it will be evident that the variousmodification and changes can be made to these embodiments withoutdeparting from the broader spirit of the invention as set forth in theclaims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regardedin an illustrative sense rather than in a restrictive sense.

1. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence ofinstructions which when executed by a computer, causes the computer toperform a method comprising: generating a graphical user interfacecomprising a text to topic button; receiving first input identifying alocation of a text file; receiving second input selecting the text totopic button; partitioning the text file into subjects in response toreceiving the second input; and storing information on the partitioning.2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein partitioning thetext comprises associating a subject topic identifiable with eachsubject.
 3. A system for creating a voice application, the systemcomprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, thememory storing instructions which when executed by the processor causesthe system to perform a method for creating a voice application, themethod comprising: generating a graphical user interface comprising atext-to-topic button; receiving first input identifying a location of atext file; receiving second input selecting the text-to-topic button;partitioning the text file into subjects in response to receiving thesecond input; and storing information on the partitioning.
 4. The systemof claim 3, wherein partitioning the text comprises associating asubject topic identifier with each subject.